For Immediate Release

February 22, 2018 

DEFUNIAK SPRINGS, Fla— A 17-year-old has been arrested after the discovery of a written threat at a Walton County School.

Thursday afternoon a student at “In10sity” Magnet School at the Wise Center found a composition notebook in a classroom with a hand-written note threatening to harm students.

The note read: “Mr. Cotton you need to go get your AK-47 and I will get my AR-15 and we can kill everyone at school.”

The entire campus, which encompasses a Pre-k and Alternative Learning Center along with the magnet school, was placed on a temporary restriction preventing student movement on campus. After an administrative search was conducted and no weapons were found the restriction was lifted shortly before dismissal.

A person of interest was identified as 17-year-old Elijah Hawn.  Hawn confessed to writing the note to school administrators and investigators and was subsequently arrested on felony charges of writing a threat to kill. He was transported to the Walton County Jail to be booked in and transferred to the Department of Juvenile Justice.